


ocarina of time and chill?

by livxxmarie



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7780435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livxxmarie/pseuds/livxxmarie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett teaches Link how to play the guitar. (set in 1999, their senior year of college)</p>
            </blockquote>





	ocarina of time and chill?

**Author's Note:**

> i had no clue what to name this and the guitar lesson isn't very much of the fic but i hope you enjoy regardless

“I wish I could play that thing.”

Link was flopped beside Rhett on the couch, positioned so that his head was hanging upside down and his legs were dangling off the back of his seat, eyes focused on the television screen that displayed a small boy in a green outfit playing an ocarina.

“You probably could,” Rhett mumbled in reply, eyes glued to the game.

His hands worked at the Nintendo 64 controls, eyebrows narrowed in concentration. The blonde had just purchased the game that morning and had invaded the apartment’s living room and had not left his seat. It was a newer release, having come out just in November of the previous year, but at the time it was available they didn’t have the console and Rhett was forced to wait impatiently until they could afford it.

“Aren’t you gettin’ hungry?” Link asked, frustrated that he was missing a _Beavis and Butthead_ marathon and already completely bored with the gameplay he was forced to watch silently.

At the mention of food, Rhett’s eyes flickered from the screen to the kitchen, leaving the game for the first time since an hour and a half ago when Link had walked in front of the television momentarily only to be bombarded with expletives that left the shorter of the two rolling his eyes and mumbling a few choice words of his own under his breath. Rhett’s thumb hovered over the start button for a moment before he pushed it, as if he were silently promising the game that he’d come back for it as soon as he could. Link resisted the urge to shoot a sarcastic comment at him, knowing that if he did he would have little-to-no chance to get to experience the new game himself.

“Do you want to go get some takeout?” Link called, hoping that his best friend would say yes and he’d have torn him away from the game for at least a little bit.

Although they lived together, their senior year of college was coming quickly to an end and the brunet was coming to the realization that their close quarters would not be forever. While he was grateful that he could finally have a place of his own, having missed the freedom of it all, his extroverted nature was demanding that he soak up as much quality time with Rhett as he could. Yet, with the introduction of this game into their lives for just a few hours, it seemed as if this new, greener Link was replacing him already.

“Sure, man,” Rhett replied, and for the first time he thanked his lucky stars that there was no food in their apartment.

They took Link’s car, the taller of the two shaking his head about gas prices and claiming he didn’t have enough money to get gas _and_ takeout. Link had just shrugged and hopped in, not caring too much about the money he was spending and more preoccupied with the happiness he felt to be spending time with Rhett.

“That game is amazing, Link,” Rhett said, eyebrows raised and gray irises lit up as they always seemed to be when he was about to go on a tangent. Link fought the smile that twitched the corners of his mouth at Rhett’s endearing behaviors, the man not having changed too much in all the years he had known him. “It’s so revolutionary.”

“Really?” Link provided, an excuse for Rhett to continue.

“Everything about it. I’ve read reviews and people are already saying that it’s gonna change the way they make video games. It’s completely open!” Rhett took a moment to look at his best friend, Link’s eyes glancing from the road to Rhett’s face for an instant to indicate that he was listening.

“The controls are so different and unique. I’ve never played anything like it before. Everything about it is new. Feels like I’m playing video games for the first time again. It’s completely open! It’s like choose your own adventure, but it’s a video game instead of a book.”

Link hummed in agreement, waiting for Rhett to continue.

“You can save it, too. It saves your spot. You don’t have to start over when you die or _anything_!”

“The main character’s got a pretty cool instrument, too,” Link quipped, wanting to add something to the conversation to steer it towards more familiar ground.

“Yes! A magical instrument that transports you through time. It’s time traveling in a video game.”

“I wonder if it’s a real thing. Are ocarinas real outside of the game? Do we have them here?”

“I bet so. I bet you could learn how to play the songs on your recorder real easy.”

Link sighed at the mention of his instrument and Rhett raised an eyebrow at the attitude change.

“What’s up? Not feelin’ the recorder anymore?”

“It’s not that, man, I love the dumb thing. But I wish I could play a better instrument—a more attractive instrument.”

“Like the guitar?” Rhett asked, raising his eyebrows with a cheeky smile. “’Cause I could teach you, brother.”

Link’s automatic reaction was to decline the offer with an eyeroll, but the more he thought about it, the better the idea sounded. It offered a way to spend much more time with his best friend and an easy new outlet for them to bond. Plus, it was a way for the brunet to drag Rhett away from that video game for an hour a day.

“Alright, man, yeah! Let’s do it. I’m gonna shred,” Link said, raising his eyebrows exaggeratedly in excitement.

“I’m not sure if I can teach you how to play _that_ good, but I can at least help you learn some chords. That’s all you gotta know, really.”

“Deal.”

Rhett grew reasonably more excited at this, an action that was always greatly uplifting to Link, having found himself absorbed immediately by the blonde’s contagious energy. Link wasn’t sure whether it was the fact that he was naturally severely empathetic or whether it boiled down to it just being that seeing Rhett happy made _him_ happy, but he ignored the inner monologue and allowed himself to drum his fingertips across the steering wheel as a way to release some of the now-pent up energy.

They ate their takeout in front of the television, Link not bothering to try to start a conversation as he knew it would be one-sided, Rhett barely able to tear his eyes away from the food in front of him. It seemed as if the man had a natural inclination to eat whenever food was near and while Link would usually take this time to take control of the conversation, he felt an impulse to simply watch Rhett while they ate together, comfortable in the silence.

The brunet had been doing that much more frequently; taking opportunities to look at his friend while preoccupied, eyes scanning over his features several times over, as if he was seeing the blonde in a new light. A heavy feeling settled in his chest whenever he looked at the man nowadays, warmth radiating throughout his entire body. Maybe he had felt like that for years, but it seemed as if the feeling was growing rapidly and swiftly. Link chocked it up to being nostalgic, but as he fought a wistful smile that was twitching the corners of his mouth and feeling entirely too encompassed by the way Rhett’s lips looked, he couldn’t help but feel like something entirely different was going on. Fighting the confusing emotions back, he cleared his throat to signify that he was finished with his meal and waited until Rhett met his eyes with a smile and picked up the garbage from the table, disposing it immediately.

“Wanna go start learnin’ the guitar, buddyroll?”

“Hell yes!”

“Alright, cool. One sec, I’ll meet you in there. I gotta turn off the game and stuff.”

Link nodded with a natural smirk and tapped his fingers on the sides of his jeans, settling easily onto Rhett’s bed as soon as he entered the room.

His vibrant blue eyes scanned the familiar surroundings with keen curiosity, taking in every detail that had been changed since he last studied the place. While he was in the room often, he was rarely there alone, and took his time to observe the décor that had changed so much over the years. The room at Rhett’s parent’s house still had all of the blonde’s trophies and memoirs, a few toys still littered the bottom of his closet, and Link knew his signature was still hidden somewhere behind the bed. In Rhett’s room at the apartment, however, the walls were no longer littered with high school memorabilia and instead featured Lionel Richie posters and ridiculous pictures of Rhett, Link, Gregg, and Mark laughing or doing something reckless. Link smiled at the thought that he existed in each of Rhett’s rooms in some form or another.

“Alright, first we’ll do the basics,” Rhett said, interrupting Link’s musings and grabbing the guitar at the foot of the bed. He sat next to Link afterwards, much closer than they would typically sit in order to demonstrate the fingerings. The blonde’s long fingers wrapped effortlessly around the neck of the instrument, settling onto a few strings before he strummed with his other hand. “This is the G chord. This is where your fingers go. You try.”

Link nodded, taking the guitar from Rhett’s hands and attempting to mimic the position he was just shown. He strummed poorly, the notes sounding a bit different than when Rhett had strummed, and his hand movements much less graceful. He winced a bit at the sound, preparing for Rhett to become frustrated with him, but was surprised by the man’s patient tone.

“Nah, you got your pointer finger in the wrong place. Close, though. Move it up one.”

Link did his best to follow instructions, but Rhett shook his head again.

“Here, let me help you,” the blonde started, moving his arm to wrap around Link’s, hand resting gently on top of the brunet’s as he guided their fingers to the proper placement. When Rhett spoke again, his voice was soft and sent a chill down Link’s spine. “Try it again.”

Link did as he was told, ignoring the strange feelings that flowed through his body, doing his best to fight down the blush that he knew was blooming intensely across his cheeks. The noise that came out of the instrument sounded much better, but his strumming was off and Rhett laughed gently, the sound sending Link’s blush into overdrive.

“You’re too forceful. Move across the strings gently,” Rhett said, moving the hand that was not curved around Link’s to the brunet’s other hand, guiding it gracefully. The note sounded much smoother and Link momentarily forgot the intense emotion he felt just prior, turning to his best friend with an excited smile.

“Did you hear that?” Link asked, voice failing only slightly once he was face to face with Rhett, who was essentially spooning them while sitting up, their faces only inches away from each other. The blue-eyed man took a sharp breath in, feeling dizzy and confused.

It seemed like everything after that happened much too quickly, the air around them coming to a complete halt as Link pulled his hand away from Rhett’s to turn into him, placing an impulsive kiss to the blonde’s lips. He retracted immediately, shooting up from the bed and mumbling some poor attempt to turn whatever the hell _that_ was into a joke, but Rhett sat frozen and unmoving, eyes focused on the spot that Link had just been seated. After a few pathetic jokes that were much too obvious to be real, the brunet finally sighed frustrated, rubbing his eyes with his hands for a moment before jerking his head back up to look at Rhett once more.

“Can we just—can we forget about that? Please?” Link laughed after he spoke, feeling self-conscious and not knowing how to deal with it, and was surprised to see gray eyes finally flicker to his own.

“Forget about it? What even _was_ that, man?”

Link flinched at the words, the tone of them not one of anger but the connotation of the statement itself sending fear through his body in a single jolt.

“I don’t know Rhett, I just. I just did it.”

“You kissed me.”

“I was just—I think I just got confused. I was just confused, that’s all,” Link stuttered, fumbling for an explanation.

 “Were you?”

“Yes. No? I don’t know, Rhett. I’m gonna go get a drink or something. I feel weird. You can go back to that game or whatever, I’m just—I just—yeah. I’m gonna—yeah. Okay.”

Link waved his hand goodbye, halfway through the action before realizing how strange he was being, and closed his hand abruptly before making a beeline to the bathroom.

He stared at himself in the mirror for at least a full minute, eyes flickering between the blue ones in the reflection as he tried to get ahold of himself.

“ _What the hell was that?_ ” He whispered, praying his voice didn’t leave the confines of the bathroom. He sighed, feeling perplexed, and took a seat on the toilet.

Had he always wanted that to happen? Was he just freaking out because they were to be separated from each other in just a month or so? It had felt so right in the moment; Rhett’s lips on his own, stubble brushing against his goateed upper lip. He felt his face heat up at the remembrance of the feeling, shaking his head and doing his best to clear his thoughts. What was going on with him lately?

The heavy feeling had settled in his chest once more as he thought of Rhett, rubbing his neck self-consciously and goosebumps perking up all over his body. He felt so strange and distorted, as if he were looking at himself from someone else’s perspective, not knowing what to do to get back to how things were before. He had settled on the realization that he had feelings for the blonde, and though it quelled some of the initial unease, the hard part would be trying to move past the realization and the kiss without denting their relationship.

Link sighed, wishing he could rewind and take back the action. He convinced himself that Rhett was telling all of their friends about it so they could tease him, and he was not prepared to deal with it. The two already got enough flack for spending so much time together, a kiss would only fuel the gay jokes into an ever burning inferno.

The thought of such jokes placed Link in a very different mindset, considering now what that meant about him and his sexuality. He had kissed Rhett, had feelings for Rhett, and had honest-to-goodness wanted to be kissed back by him. Did that mean he was gay? He had never liked anything but girls before, the way their hands felt so small in his, the feminine curves of their bodies, their long eyelashes and beautiful smiles. Now, though, he considered how it would be to hold a man’s hand, to be the one being held and kissed on the forehead and given stuffed animals at the carnival. He pondered on the thought of a muscular back and a 5 o’clock shadow and thickly muscled arms. He wondered how it would feel to lean up to kiss someone, to be dipped on the dance floor, to be in a relationship with someone bigger and more dominant than himself. At these imaginings, he blushed again, and determined that whatever he was, it wasn’t straight. The thought sent an unyielding wave of nausea through him, words of pastors repeating themselves in his ear as if he were hearing them again for the first time. Self-deprecation came swiftly and easily, sending him into an even more distressed state. He tried to remember that they were in more progressive times now, that it wasn’t as dooming to be non-heterosexual, that the world around him would not implode—but what about the people around him? What would his mother say? What would his father do? More importantly, what would Rhett say?

Rhett. Rhett, who was just outside the door, who had just been kissed by Link, who was the brunet’s best friend of so long. How was he to react when Link came outside of the bathroom, flushed and nervous, claiming that he was into guys now, just moments after he had kissed him?

“Link?” The man in question must’ve been psychic, deep voice jolting Link out of his frenzied thoughts and sending him back into reality.

“Uh, yeah?” Link called back, not wanting to leave the safety of the bathroom just yet but also not wanting to cause his best friend any upset.

“Can I…” Rhett trailed off, wiggling the door handle to indicate that he wanted to come in. Link rolled his eyes despite the situation, smiling briefly at the blonde’s eloquence and way with words.

“Yeah, one sec,” Link replied, standing up from the toilet and unlocking the door before settling back in his seat. Rhett stepped inside, voice vacant of any clear expression, and sat opposite him on the bathtub.

“So…” Link started, uncomfortable and wishing he had had more time to himself so he could think things over. He wasn’t sure how to start the conversation.

“So. Yeah. What’s goin’ on?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, with you. What are you thinking about? Why did you trap yourself in here for fifteen minutes?”

“It’s been that long?”

“Yeah, buddyroll. I’m worried about you.”

“Huh,” Link murmured, considering Rhett’s tone. He didn’t seem angry. He seemed normal. It seemed like the kiss and Link’s strange behavior hadn’t thrown Rhett off at all. In fact, he seemed almost giddy.

“Yeah. So… what is it?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Link asked, trying to think of a lie that he could get away with telling.

“I’m sure, man. Don’t stall. Be honest with me.”

Link averted his eyes from Rhett’s, aiming them towards the bathroom tile instead, pretending to admire the cheap linoleum as he spoke.

“I don’t know, man. Honestly. I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“What are you sure about?”

“Nothing. Everything. Something, probably.”

Rhett snorted at this, shaking his head. Link smiled too, unable to help himself.

“Listen, man, all I know is that I was teachin’ you how to play guitar, you kissed me, you freaked out, and then you came in here.”

“That’s all I know, too.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Link replied. He shook his head and sighed immediately. “No.”

“Well then. What is it?”

“I don’t know if I want to talk about it yet, man.”

“You can tell me anything, Link.”

The blue eyed man peered back up at his best friend. It was curious how he hadn’t gotten as equally freaked out by the action. At the time, he looked completely shell-shocked, but now, he looked completely fine. Link thought of this as he racked his brain for a fake explanation, something to fib about until he got over his feelings. Sighing dejectedly, he shook his head at himself, and decided to tell the truth.

“I think I’m not straight.”

Rhett laughed at this; a full, belly rumbling bellow releasing from his chest. Link felt hurt immediately, pushing his eyes right back to the ground and trying to dispel his anger.

“Whatever. Nevermind.”

“No! No, Link, I didn’t mean it like that, honestly,” Rhett placed a hand on Link’s shoulder to pull his attention back. “I’m sorry. I just thought that was obvious.”

Link stared back up at him, mouth agape as he fumbled for words.

“Obvious? Since when?”

“Since you kissed me, dummy.”

Link smiled sheepishly at this, face heating up.

“Oh yeah. That.”

“Yes. _That_. That’s what I wanted to talk about.”

“Can we just forget about it?”

“Is that what you want?”

 Link felt like he was having deja vu, the same conversation as twenty minutes before now popping back up.

“Honestly?” Link asked, feeling his cheeks turn red. Rhett nodded, his own face filled with an unreadable expression.

“I don’t think I could even if I wanted to.”

Rhett nodded, sitting back a little and sighing slightly. Link wasn’t sure what else to say, feeling like the room was filled with much more tension than before, hoping that his friend could move past this. He shunned himself for being too honest, inwardly judging himself for exposing his feelings so quickly to someone who was so important in his life, knowing that they could potentially destroy their friendship. After a moment of silence, Link gained enough courage to speak up again.

“What are you thinking?”

“I wish you could forget about it. The kiss, I mean.”

Link swallowed hard, nodding. Before he could say something to change the subject or come up with some way to get them back to safer ground, Rhett was speaking again, his voice nervous.

“I didn’t even have time to kiss you back.”

Link’s eyes shot up to gray irises that were staring straight back at him, the tall man’s cheeks flushed. A smile spread across the brunet’s face and he leaned in, feeling much more confident than he had when he kissed Rhett the first time, and kissed the man sweetly. Rhett responded instantly, pulling Link towards him with force, the shorter man yelping as he nearly fell off the edge of the toilet seat. They laughed at their awkwardness before kissing once more, Link reveling in how wonderful it felt to have Rhett’s lips against his own, a new kind of closeness sending him into a frenzy of happiness.

The two broke apart but made no move to leave the bathroom. Link moved himself so that he was sitting next to Rhett on the edge of the tub, holding his hand and staring at their intertwined fingers with wonder as they discussed what would happen now.

“What are the guys gonna say? What’s Gregg gonna say?” Link asked, the anxiety settling into the pit of his stomach again at the thought of their roommate. He had been gone for the week, having left campus to go to a family wedding in Pennsylvania.

“We don’t have to tell them.”

Link looked at Rhett, the taller man’s eyes focused into his own, trying to read his expression.

“Do you want to keep it a secret from them?”

“I just don’t want you to stress about this.”

Link rolled his eyes with a smile, nudging the blonde with his shoulder.

“I’m gonna stress either way, bo,” Link replied, feeling tingly from all of their physical contact. He felt like he was in some weird dream, like he’d wake up in just a moment and jolt out of bed, laughing it off. But he wasn’t. Rhett was next to him, both of them were awake, and they had kissed. They had kissed a _lot_.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to tell them?” Rhett asked, voice softer than it usually was when it was directed towards Link. It was as if this closeness had opened up a whole side of Rhett that the brunet was rarely able to see. It existed dominantly when they were younger, especially during their early teens, but had faded quickly once they reached high school.

“I want to do whatever you think is best. You’re better at thinkin’ logically. I’m too impulsive.”

“Alright. Here’s what I think: if we tell the guys, they’ll either be weird about it or they won’t care. But, if we do tell them, we have to tell our parents, too. Are you ready for that?”

Link contemplated this, knowing that everything that Rhett said was true. They were to be moving out of college and heading into careers in just a couple months and the begrudging acceptance of their parent’s rules was soon to be gone from their lives. While they had already had almost complete freedom, the apartment’s rent was assisted by each of the boys’ parents and they were expected to keep in close contact with their family and to not do anything to upset them. Once they were moved out and living on their own, it wouldn’t be a big deal to come forward with something that could potentially make relatives uncomfortable.

Still, Link wasn’t sure he wanted to wait. He hated lying to people—especially his mother, as the woman was the most important person in his life—and although leaving out information was not technically a lie, it still felt shady. He looked back into Rhett’s eyes, still confused with what he should do, and was surprised when the older of the two leaned down to kiss him.

“Sorry,” Rhett murmured, cheeks red and a sheepish smile on his face. Link found the man’s sudden shy behavior endearing and smiled brightly.

“Only apologize for not kissin’ me longer, bo,” Link said, winking exaggeratedly in Rhett’s direction. The blonde laughed and rolled his eyes, nudging him.

“So what are you thinkin, Lincoln?”

“I want to leave it entirely up to you. I’m ready to tell my mom, but if you’re not ready to tell your family I’d be happy to wait. We’ll be out of here in a few months anyhow.”

Rhett nodded and turned his eyes subconsciously to the wall in front of him, deep in thought. After a moment, he turned back to Link.

“I think we should tell them now. The sooner the better. But that means we gotta sit down and have a deep conversation about our emotions now.”

“Oh boy,” Link replied, sighing. Rhett shrugged and gestured towards the door.

“We don’t have to do it right now. Gregg won’t be back for another couple of days. We’re not goin’ back home until next weekend. Let’s go teach you how to play a chord.”

“I’m not really feelin’ the guitar lessons anymore,” Link admitted, smiling. “My fingers aren’t strong enough for that, man.”

“Wanna go play Zelda?”

“You have two Links to choose from. One that will makeout with you and one that will not makeout with you.”

“So… is that a no on the Zelda…”

“Okay, fine, we can go play Zelda. But only if I get to play.”

Rhett shot up off of the tub victoriously and turned to Link, pulling him up.

“That reminds me! You can have more than one person play it! It’s awesome, you can make your own and so can Gregg and they won’t like delete the progress or anything. There are multiple save slots. It’s revolutionary!”

Link smiled and rolled his eyes, following him out of the bathroom as the tall man continued to spew off facts that he had read in Nintendo Power.

They situated themselves on the couch, Rhett saving his game and heading back to the start menu to start a new one for Link. They played for another hour or so, Rhett teaching Link how to use the controls and how to navigate the world. During a cutscene, the shorter of the two looked up at his best friend.

“I don’t think we need a conversation about what we are.”

“Why do you think that?”

“We’re just _us_. Nothing’s changed. You’re still Rhett, I’m still Link. We’re still best friends. We’re just best friends who happen to kiss each other and go on dates.”

“You’re takin’ me on a date? A night on the town with Linkster?”

Link laughed, pushing Rhett and rolling his eyes.

“You know what I mean, man. But we are like, dating. Right? You’re my boyfriend?”

“If you want me to be.”

Link smiled at this and kissed Rhett again, wondering if he’d ever get tired of the way it felt.

“Alright. Cool. Boyfriends.”

Rhett nodded and smiled back and the two focused back on the game for a little while before the taller man laughed heartily, making Link jump.

“What’d I do?”

“Nothin’, nothin’, I’m just. Poor Gregg.”

**Author's Note:**

> i got on a bit of a tangent about Zelda Ocarina of Time and if any of the facts are wrong please correct me thank ya v much. i hope u enjoyed ! feedback is welcomed.


End file.
